National Quality Forum Endorses Long-Stay Hospitalization Measure

1/26/2017

Blair Jackson

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​The National Quality Forum (NQF) has endorsed a
metric designed to measure hospitalization rates among
long-stay residents who have been in a skilled nursing
center’s care for more than 100 days. It’s the first measure of its kind
to receive NQF recognition.

Sponsored by the American HealthCare Association (AHCA)
and PointRight, the Minimum Data Set-based, risk-adjusted measure helps providers monitor
conditions that may increase a long-stay resident’s chance of being sent to the
hospital from a nursing care center.

Hospitalizations often impact a resident’s quality of life, increasing
their exposure to issues such as infection and loss of
function.

“This endorsement is another example of how we
are improving lives by delivering solutions for quality care,” said AHCA
President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Parkinson. “This also speaks to the
importance of strong partnerships. Together with PointRight, we have been able
to provide the profession with a measure to improve quality care and reduce
hospital admissions for the long-stay population.”

“The use of this NQF-endorsed measure will help
providers identify areas to focus on in order to reduce potentially harmful
hospitalizations for the resident,” said David Gifford, MD, MPH, AHCA’s senior
vice president of quality and regulatory affairs. “It will also be a great
source of information for Accountable Care Organizations and Managed Care
Organizations. I’m confident we will continue to see improvements nationwide.”

Gifford noted that AHCA expanded
its multi-year Quality Initiative in 2014 to include a goal to safely reduce
hospitalizations among long-stay residents by 15 percent or achieve/maintain a
performance rate of 10 percent or less by March 2018. As of March 2016, 38 percent of AHCA member providers had achieved the goal.

“A large proportion of long-stay residents are
hospitalized at the end of life,” added Steven Littlehale, executive vice
president and chief clinical officer of PointRight. “This measure, along with
associated root cause analysis tools, will enable skilled nursing centers to
better care for these residents and other at-risk populations.”

NQF endorsement requires extensive testing and evaluation of a measure’s reliability and
validity. As part of this process, sponsors are asked to provide detailed
descriptions of how the measure is calculated and risk adjusted.

The long-stay measure is currently available to
all AHCA members, along with peer comparison rates, through LTC Trend Tracker.
It’s also available directly through PointRight.